December 11, 2013

Xbox One Reaches 2 Million Sales Mark

In its first 18 days on retail shelves, Microsoft's Xbox One has sold over two million units worldwide. Sales have averaged more than 111,111 units per day, the company said on Xbox Wire. The brisk sales are a record for Xbox as a whole.

Sony's competing PlayStation 4 passed the two million mark in three weeks. The PlayStation 4 went on sale a week before Xbox One. Both consoles are continuing to move at retail outlets. And each manufacturer is hoping to edge the other out.

"Demand for next generation gaming continues to be very strong," John Love, director of video games at Amazon, stated in the Xbox Wire post. "At peak demand, customers were ordering the Xbox One console at over 1000 units per minute on Amazon.com."

Microsoft is looking to increase the sales of its Xbox One console. The company reports on Xbox One owner activity on its Xbox Live platform in both games and interaction with other online content.

"We continue to be humbled and overwhelmed by the positive response from our fans. We are thrilled to see sales of Xbox One on a record-setting pace, with over 2 million Xbox One consoles in homes around the world. Demand is exceeding supply in our 13 launch markets and Xbox One is sold out at most retailers. We’re also particularly excited to see consumers engaging in a wide range of games and entertainment experiences on the platform, with more than 1 million paid transactions on Xbox Live to date," Yusuf Mehdi, corporate vice president of strategy and marketing, stated in the Xbox Wire post.

In addition to Amazon's online sales, other retailers are seeing heavy demand for the console. Demand for the Xbox One at Walmart remains strong.

“Xbox One is one of the hottest Christmas gifts this holiday season and was a top seller this Black Friday,” said Chris Nagelson, vice president of entertainment for Walmart US, in the Xbox Wire release. “We are refreshing our inventory as fast as we can to ensure customers can give and receive the new console for Christmas.”

This holiday, GameStop is also selling Xbox One units as soon as it gets them in stock. “The Xbox One entertainment system is one of our hottest selling products this holiday season,” said Bob Puzon, senior vice president of Merchandising. “GameStop is experiencing high demand from our customers for this innovative console and we are working closely with Microsoft to receive more units to fulfill our customers’ holiday shopping lists.”

As the console manufacturers compete, consumers are deciding the winner at retail. The pace is close for both the Xbox One and PlayStation 4.

"Baird analyst Colin Sebastian says both consoles are in a 'dead heat' on sales, predicting both consoles will sell 3 million each by the end of the year," USA Today reports. "Our checks suggest there is strong demand for next gen hardware among both game enthusiasts as well as holiday shoppers, and most retailers still have open orders for both platforms."